At the outset I should say that we have followed very carefully all aspects of the Sea Empress incident. We have been kept fully informed on a daily basis of developments. In addition, a senior officer of the Marine Emergency Services Division of the Department of the Marine was part of the special European Union task force which was assembled to assist and observe the response of the UK authoritiers.
It is clear that there are lessons to be learned by everyone from this incident and the Marine emergency services will be conducting a full review of the implications for emergency management in this country. In this regard, the report of the official inquiry will be of particular interest.
We have, however, already in place, highly developed contingency plans to respond to a major oil tanker incident. These plans define precise roles for local authorities, harbour authorities, central Government Departments, as well as procedures for obtaining support from other EU member states and specialised international commercial pollution equipment stockpiles.